


Smile

by justonebigclusterfuck



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Fake AH Crew, GTA, GTA AU, GTA V AU, Gang AU, Gang!AU, Happy Birthday, M/M, Rare Pairings, Reporter!Jon, Vagabond, gta v - Freeform, rareship, risingwood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-04 17:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5343164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justonebigclusterfuck/pseuds/justonebigclusterfuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It all started with photos. Ryan could blame it on his own inabilities but really he just wanted to make that reporter smile. And then again. And then again. Until he's in too deep and suddenly doesn't want to get back out again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deltasyork](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltasyork/gifts).



> Woooo I started a new thing! I've had this idea brewing for a while and then when I offered my friend a fic for her birthday, she said that she wanted Risingwood so I got an excuse to write this!! This is for my boo, because I couldn't be with you on your birthday!

The worst thing about their job was the press that they got.

Sure the police could be a bit hard to handle at times and the civilians trying to be heroes were definitely classed as some of the most annoying parts of their daily routine. But as far as the Fake AH Crew were concerned, there’s nothing worse than the journalists that chased them down like bloodhounds on a trail.

Most of the time the Fake AH Crew were able to avoid them though. They’re a good team and they worked well together to ensure that everyone got away safely. Those were the good days, though – the day when there are no problems and no stress and everything works out perfectly.

Occasionally some of them would succeed in cornering them- those are the smart ones who actually have a brain inside their swollen heads. Gavin’s had one too many _incidents_ when he’s needed to be rescued by a knight on a motorbike. One time Ray got cornered as he fled from his nest, but they resolved that quickly.

No one knows exactly when it’s going to happen, but they always manage to resolve the situation quickly. That’s why they’re so good. That’s why they never got caught.

In fact it’s rare that someone actually gets caught. It’s even rarer that it’s the Vagabond who gets caught. But it’s called rare because it’s not entirely impossible, so they should have expected it someday.

As it happens, today was that day.

“Where are you going?” Geoff’s yell resounded loudly over the coms, shocking Ryan to a complete stop. He froze mid-step, his hand was still hovering over the door handle, over the escape that had once seemed so close, and his eyes moved around slowly. It was an instantaneous reaction, to check if he was the one in the wrong.

“The place is swamped, Geoff! There’s police everywhere!” Gavin squawked, his voice rising as he attempted to argue, and Ryan was still hovering, because that he knew Gavin was involved, he knew that he was as well. Without Gavin he was stuck, and it didn’t sound like Gavin was sticking around.

He glanced from side-to-side, trying to evaluate his situation. He’d ditched his own tails ages ago and had been just about to meet up with Gav for a clean getaway, but evidently that wasn’t going to happen anymore.

It was just their luck that this would go wrong- they were unable to complete a heist without something going wrong.

Everything had been flowing so smoothly. They’d broken into a store a few blocks away and the idea had been for Ryan to cut through this building and ditch out of the back door onto the street behind, which had worked perfectly.

Until now. Now he had been abandoned and had to find his own way out.

“Is there any way you could loop around, Gav?” He asked, breaking into a slow jog as he headed back down the corridor of offices. If Gavin said that there were police on the other side of the back door, then Ryan trusted him.

He’d just have to find another way out.

He just wasn’t sure how easy that would be.

At least it was a relief to hear that Ray and Michael had made it away safely, and he didn’t doubt that Geoff and Jack would be together. They always were drawn to each other. Even if they were still stuck in heat, Ryan had no doubt that they’d be able to protect each other and get out of there alive.

Him and Gavin on the other hand, well that might require a little bit more effort.

“I could try to get into the multi-storey?”

“Okay.”

They had to act quickly, before the police moved to surround the building entirely. Hopefully they didn’t know for certain that there was someone in here. Hopefully they were being slow and cautious so as not to miss anything. Hopefully. Hopefully.

They were resting a lot on hope.

“I’m almost there, Gav.”

“I’m on the fourth floor.”

Ryan looked across at the storey level before he burst through the door into the multi-storey and that was the only reason he collided with the person on the other side.

The two of them were sent tumbling, crashing to the ground in one loud explosion, which shattered the silence into shards that would never be fixed together again.

Ryan ensured that when he swore.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt the investigation! I-“

The man cut off and Ryan didn’t even need to look up to know that the man had spotted his mask. It had that sort of an effect on people. Within a moment he was moving to correct it, to ensure that nothing was showing outside of the skull that the whole city knew.

“You’re-“

“In a rush,” Ryan interrupted him this time, pushing himself to his feet. He had no time for this. He was sure that someone must have heard that.

That would be just his luck after everything that had happened so far today.

“I’m fine, lads,” he added a second later to silence the rambling noises in his ear. “Stay where you are, Gav. I’ll be a minute.”

Then he turned back to the man still lying beneath him and, for some bizarre reason, offered out a hand. It was only then that he noticed the unconventional long locks that the man sported. His eyes trailed rapidly, moving to the bright eyes and the all too familiar face that he’d seen so many times before.

He knew this man.

“Risinger.”

The words had passed his lips before he could stop it and the reaction was instant. The soft face blanched for a second and lips moved, even though no sound was escaping, before they finally pursed and he nodded.

Ryan smiled, even if the journalist couldn’t see it beneath his mask.

“I like your show.”

Then he was running, leaving Jon standing behind him, silenced. And if he turned back mid-run, it was because he was checking up on him, not because he knew that Jon would have his camera ready and the shot lined up.


	2. Chapter 2

_2 months later_

Although none of the others knew, that was where it had started. It being the Fake AH Crew becoming a regular feature on Risinger's show. Suddenly they weren't just another petty gang on the street, they became thegang. They were rapidly gaining prestige on the streets of Los Santos and even Geoff couldn't deny that the publicity was doing them good.

So it had become a routine now, an unspoken tradition of sorts, for them all to be there on a Saturday night when the show went live. None of them had arranged it but they'd all be gathered in the apartment, ready and waiting.

"Risinger's on!" Gavin's yell was their signal, their trigger word, and it was to the cheerful sound of the theme song that they drifted across the room and gathered around the screen.

There was a set way they did that as well.

Gavin was always clinging onto the laptop, squished between the two lads with Geoff and Jack on either side. Ryan would be to one side of the group, perched against the arm of the chair and watching the screen from his safe distance. That way it was easier to arrange his features for the times when he had his mask off and another controversial photo came up on the screen.

This time was no different.

Ryan had just settled himself on the left side of the group as the title screen dispersed and the familiar news group was revealed. Jon was always centre, flanked by Burnie and Miles on either side. Together they made up the On the Spot news team but there was undoubtedly many more of them behind the scenes.

"I'm Burnie..."

"I'm Miles..."

"And I'm your host, Jon Risinger, and this is On the Spot."

The following hour was almost always filled with silence, broken only by Geoff's guffaws or snickering from the lads. They were always enraptured and by the time came for their segment they were almost bursting from the built-up excitement.

Then Burnie would look at Miles and Jon would smile, smile so brightly that Ryan would swear the lights were dimmed.

"And now it's time for the part of the show that you're all waiting for."

The brunet always managed to sound so proud at this bit. He'd be wearing that wide grin and staring right at the camera, almost as if he knew they were watching.

Maybe he did.

"Had any run ins with the Fake AH Crew this week, Jon?" Miles' smile was just as bad, Ryan thought. He knew, of course he knew that Jon had had another 'bump' into them earlier that week. He knew that Jon had  _somehow_  gotten another great image, and he knew that the entire city would be desperate to see what the photographer had managed to get.

Ryan knew it would be good.

The photos were always good, even if the news wasn't always. Most of the time, On the Spot was pro-Fake AH Crew. They weren't always though. They'd branded them as the Robin Hood's of Los Santos, even if it was rare that they gave the money to the poor. But robbing from the rich was something they did often. Very often. Whenever they had a tussle with another gang as well, there was always talk of saving the citizens, of protecting from the darker people who also prowled the streets.

Michael found it hilarious. Ryan was sure it all went to Geoff's head and the way Ray and Gavin now referred to each other as Xray and Vav was more than enough of an explanation as to how they found it. The nicknames they'd created for the rest of the crew just proved that they were equally caught up in the On the Spot story.

On occasion the stories turned bad though. Like that one time they held up a bank – how were they supposed to know that the clerk would press the emergency button – or the time that civilian had gotten shot.

It hadn't affected any of the crew until they'd seen the news that Saturday night, until they'd seen the slander that had been spread about them.

That was the week that Ryan had given Jon the burner phone.

There were times when it was better that Jon was there to see the whole thing and times when he wasn't and if the crew – Ryan – called him when they had a scene they wanted him to see rather than him turning up at all the worst moments. Well, that would work a lot more in their favour.

As far as the rest of the crew knew though, it was just dumb luck on the journalist's part. Jack might have suspicions but Ray was already suggesting that the brunet was a criminal himself with tabs on the police radios. Gavin liked that idea, especially when he added it to their superhero story – " _He's our very own Jimmy Olsen!_ "

"Funny you say that, Miles."

The picture lit up on the screen behind them and, like always, Ryan was left stunned for a few seconds. Jon's photos always looked good, especially with all of the editing that he did on them, but he always seemed to capture the best moments.

This time he'd managed something even more spectacular than his usual work because he hadn't just gotten any member of the crew.

He'd gotten a photo of Ray.

Ray, who was crouched in his nest as he usually was during a heist, with his gun armed and one eye squeezed shut as he squinted through the scope. It was amazing that Jon had managed to spot him, let alone take a picture of him, especially one of such a good quality.

But the best bit, or at least as far as Ryan was concerned, was the smirk. Jon must have caught Ray at just the right moment because he'd captured that small turn up of Ray's lips when he saved one of them. He always bragged about it later, about how he'd taken out that guy who had been just about to shoot them, and he was always wearing the same blazing grin.

The glowing sky behind Ray just made everything that much better.

"He's so small!" Burnie exclaimed to Ray's disdain.

"I'm not that small!"

Ryan's smile arched, his eyes moving swiftly across the screen to dance over the small bumps of Ray's rosy cheeks, tinted by the cold and just visible beneath the harsh line of his mask. There was a glimpse of nose as well and Ryan felt like if he crouched down just a little he'd be treated with a flash of bright eyes.

Which was when he realised that Jon had angled this photo just right to catch the smile and not Ray's face. Ray's mask was arranged to let him see through his rifle scope, a position that unfortunately revealed his whole face to the world.

But Jon hadn't taken a shot of it.

He could have earned a bomb. He could have boosted his career sevenfold with that single photo.

But he had purposefully missed it.

The others were unaware, Ryan noted, all of them commenting on how good Ray looked and how it was a great photo.

It was impossible for Ryan to concentrate now though.

He couldn't understand why Risinger would have done that.

"You're like Hawkeye, Xray!"

Gavin's yell snapped him out of it.

Geoff's hand was on the back of Gavin's head, messing up his hair and Ray was shoving at the Brit's chest out of frustration and they were all laughing. Loud bursts of it filled the room around them and it wasn't just limited to the trio but Michael looked like he was about to fall off the couch he was laughing so much and Jack was smiling, her hands catching the laptop subtly before it plunged to the floor.

And Ryan? Ryan's eyes were drawn to the screen again even as she moved it away, drawn to the three men signing off. He needed to know why Risinger hadn't shown Ray's face and, more importantly, if he was intending to.

There has to be another reason, a logical reason to explain why Risinger would give that up.

Maybe he was planning to sell it for the highest price.

That was a scary thought.

There were a lot of gangs that would love an in on the Fake AH Crew's territory and if they saw that the infamous Brownman appeared to be nothing more than a kid- Well, Ryan didn't doubt that they'd do their best to pick him off first.

"I'm going out."

There was a sudden lapse of silence and Ryan realised how loudly he's spoken. How quickly he'd risen to his feet, stiff amidst the joy.

"Want me to come?" Ray asked after a beat and there was something about the way his eyes ran over Ryan's face that had Ryan wondering if the man actually believed he had Xray abilities.

The two of them often disappeared together with the words 'for a break' hanging in the air behind them. Ryan would be lying if he said he didn't love the moments that the two of them spent together, just relaxing and dicking around. But this time he swallowed and shook his head.

"I won't be long."

The crushed look on Ray's face haunted him all the way to the door.

By the time he'd reached the car it was forgotten though. His entire mind was focused on Risinger, on finding him and working out just what sort of game he was playing here because it was obvious that the Fake AH Crew had become pawns in whatever strategy he was working on.

The studio where they filmed On the Spot was the most obvious place to start and Ryan got there just in time to catch the trio spilling out of the door. Their intoxication was obvious and Ryan found no hardship at all in shadowing Jon on his walk home.

In fact the man didn't even notice him until he had stepped into his flat and the door had slammed shut behind him a few seconds too late.

Only then had he turned slowly, eyes meeting Ryan's through the small slits in his mask. And he smiled. He caught Ryan completely off guard and the Vagabond wondered for a second whether he'd been as subtle as he'd originally thought in tailing Jon.

"Vagabond," he uttered, his voice a delicious concoction of awe and disbelief. This time it was Ryan's turn to grin, even if Jon couldn't see it beneath his mask.

"Where are the other photos?" Ryan demanded.

"What do you mean?"

"The photos of Brownman."

Jon shifted awkwardly. His gaze dropped and his fingers curled and Ryan saw all of it.

"They're gone."

"Gone?"

A mute nod wasn't answer enough for Ryan. He strode forward, intruding Jon's personal space and forcing him back until he hit a wall.

"What do you mean gone?"

"I deleted them all!" Jon exclaimed. He didn't sound as put together now as he did before, but then before there wasn't the prospect of death waving in his face.

"Why did you delete them?" Ryan demanded and Jon sort of froze. He turned, his head coming up to look at Ryan and Ryan was once again amazed by the blue hue to his eyes.

Until he spoke.

"He's just a kid. He's just a kid and you take him out there and put him in danger-"

"I protect him," Ryan interrupted and Jon glared at him, his eyes locking with Ryan's and for the first time Ryan felt like his victim wasn't as terrified of him as he should be.

"Then you'll understand why the pictures are gone."

It took a minute for Jon's words to sink in. Another minute had passed before Ryan was stepping away and it was only after five minutes, after Jon attempted to offer Ryan a cup of tea, that Ryan actually left the house.

He stayed on the block for the rest of the night though, watching the man who had somewhere along the way decided to watch out for them in return.


	3. Chapter 3

There was a time when it had just been Ryan - a time where the clouds had always been grey overhead, his gun had been an extension of his arm and he had barely felt the bullets as they nicked his skin.

It was because of these years alone that he had built his reputation as the Mad Mercenary.

He was unstoppable.

Unbeatable.

When you had no one to care for and there was no one caring for you, it was hard to find a reason to care at all; it was frightening how often he kept rising up again, rising to fight again, regardless of the pain his enemies had cut into him.

Those were the bad days - so bad that he can barely remember any of them. But sometimes the stories creep up again, stories so crazy that it makes it hard to dissect the truth from the rumours.

Then Geoff came along.

And suddenly it wasn't just the Mad Mercenary any more.

It was the Mad Mercenary and Ramsey and things went better after that.

Geoff brought sense and logic to the crazy death match that Ryan had been playing, mental as that would sound if they were to think back now. Geoff showed him that he couldn't just run in guns blazing and hope to scare everyone into submission - although that did work most of the time when the Mad Mercenary was involved, he had to admit.

Geoff showed him that it wasn't a weakness to be weak. He showed him that pain could be good and he forced him to stop pushing his limits.

That wasn't to say they didn't do crazy things. Geoff and Ryan were the only ones to date to rob a armoured car with a flare and some fake police uniforms and they took great pride in retelling the story on nights when it was the six of them and a few too many bottles of alcohol.

But they were more sensible as well. They suffered less injuries and they had days off, where they just relaxed and chilled. It was good for the both of them.

It wasn't until Gavin came along that they stopped being so reckless though.

After their third close call of the month, they'd been debating a way to ensure that they didn't get surprised as often. That was when the Brit showed up out of the blue and they were surprised to find that Gavin brought more than just good looks to the table. With an impressive knowledge of computers and a smooth tongue to top it all off, he became their tech guy and another perfect accomplice.

It was the three of them together that pulled off the Top Transgender Heist, as Gavin calls it, proving that even with logic, Gavin's plans can be incredibly inventive, if not incredibly idiotic.

That might also be the reason why Ryan refuses to let Gavin plan another heist.

He's not letting Gavin force him into a blonde wig again. Even if it has been a successful heist.

Apparently Gavin still had photos but whenever it was brought up in conversation, Ryan was quick to silence him with his best glare.

Jack brought the home to the little threesome. With open arms and a fair amount of persuasive words, she coaxed them into relative normality outside of their cons. She stopped the rising alcohol intake and made sure they were all fed, while still managing to show all of them up in any vehicle race, on road or in the air.

Without her, their air attack on central bank would never have been successful. None of them, other than Jack, would have been able to hold that chopper steady enough for them all to climb the rope ladder to safety.

She kept them all safe and generally mothered them all seeing as the rest of them apparently couldn't be bothered to do it themselves.

Michael's introduction to the group was actually a little different to the others.

Incredibly different.

With a mixture of bad luck and unfortunate planning, Michael literally blew his way into their group when both the Fake AH Crew and the redhead decided to rob the same bank on the same day. After a brief pause to re-evaluate the scene, the men decided to team up and it was through the new exit that they left the bank, bags of money at their sides and their new bomb expert trotting along with them.

Jack was more than surprised when the redhead showed up with her boys at the getaway vehicle but one smile from the redhead and she quickly decided he was staying.

Ray was the final person to join their family. It wasn't planned and it definitely wasn't expected - they already had 5 people living in a house and definitely hadn't thought they would ever get a sixth.

Then Ray came along.

Young, innocent-looking Ray, who spent more time playing on his DS than he did anything else, but somehow managed to have the best fucking shot that Geoff had ever seen. He could hit people from blocks away and he didn't even brag about it. He just accepted that it was something he could do and when Geoff offered him a position in the crew, he had thought it was all a joke.

It was more out of not wanting to leave him on the street alone that they had invited the Puerton Rican into their group, but they didn't regret it.

Not even for a second.

Together they had formed the Fake AH Crew and they'd never needed anyone else.

Until now.

It was the text that started it all off.

It was a deep buzzing in the dead of the night that had Ryan starting awake almost instantly. The thing was that he knew within seconds that it wasn't his usual phone. His everyday mobile was on the bedside table beside him, right next to his gun and mask, and that one still boasted a dark screen.

The vibrations continued though and it took Ryan a moment to realise that they were coming from his chair, or more precisely the coat thrown over the back of the chair.

That was when he'd started to get a bit troubled. There was only one person who had that number. Jon, and Jon never texted the burner phone.

The alarms started ringing immediately.

Ryan was the one that did the texting and that was the extent of their relationship. He texted Jon and Jon turned up and that was as far as it went.

Admittedly, he hadn't even known that the phone was on the vibrate setting. He'd had no cause to use it before so the sudden attack of noise shocked him into action. By the time he'd found the cause, he was wide awake.

So he'd decided to see what was wrong - to make sure that Jon was okay and also because he was a tiny bit curious.

He had to crawl from his bed and dig deep into his jacket to find it, extracting it from the hidden pocket within.

Not even the rest of the crew knew he was in contact with the journalist - if he had his way they never would.

It was safer that way.

The screen has long since died once he had gotten it out but one press of a button has it exploding into colour again.

There was one message on the home screen:

What the fuck did you do?

**

"Copycats."

"They're not fucking copycats. They're thieves! They stole our fucking logo."

Michael waves at the screen angrily, indicating the blaze of green against the brick backdrop.

"Calm down, Michael," Geoff sighed and it was obvious that 3am didn't suit him well.

He was slumped against the table, eyes half closed as he attempted to conduct whatever meeting this was.

Ryan had fetched him the minute he'd seen the text. He's lied about not being able to sleep and said he'd stumbled across the update on Twitter.

'Fake AH Crew Test their Luck.'

It was everywhere. Emblazoned across every internet news site and tv station with puns that made even Ray cringe in shame.

The worst thing as far as Ryan was concerned was what had happened.

It was how many people had been slaughtered for no reason.

It was the disappointed message that still sat unanswered in his pocket.

"What am I supposed to do, Geoff? Fucking sit here in silence?"

"Yes!" Geoff exclaimed at the same time as Jack said "no."

Both eyes swivelled to him automatically.

"We have to figure out who they are, because they're definitely not us."

Ryan wasn't sure about the others but a shiver crept up his spine at Jack's words.

Excitement.

"Then we deal with it, like we always do."

"Why don't we just let them do it?" Ray was still sprawled across the sofa, legs tucked up and eyes glued to the DS resting against them. He hadn't even moved an inch, his attention hadn't shifted from the game before him, but the suggestion now hung in the air between them. "It gives us more rep. People are more scared of us."

Silence hung for a few seconds longer before he was turning to Ryan.

"Right?" and usually Ryan would have agreed with this. Maybe not whole-heartedly but he was the one who had killed hundreds of people. He was the one who already had the slogan of murderer branded across his back.

But now he had a dead weight in his jacket and before he knew it he was shaking his head. He couldn't imagine not being able to tell Jon that this wasn't them. He couldn't imagine what Jon would think of him then.

"No." Jack spoke up next, his head shaking. "This isn't what we do, Ray." He tossed the newspaper across the room to the Hispanic and they all watched as Ray's eyes went down and caught the front page, caught his first glimpse of the massacre. Then blinked and looked again.

"We have to find out who did this," Geoff repeated and they all looked around slowly.

It appeared like they'd reached a decision and even Ray was nodding in agreement. Then it was Ryan's turn to smile, because he knew someone who could help.


	4. Chapter 4

There was no real explanation for how long Ryan hovered outside of Risinger's door.

It had been all too easy for him to return to the same house he'd followed him to earlier. He'd committed it to memory at the time and he remembered it now that he needed it.

But now that he was here?

Now that he was here he felt weird. 

His stomach felt like it was twisted, wrung out like a wet towel, and the still unanswered message weighed down in his pocket; it was a pile of weights, dragging him down with the guilt.

He couldn't stay out here forever though.

He was already looking weird enough, no doubt, hovering outside of Risinger's door like some sort of stalker. But he'd also made the bad decision of coming in his mask.

He couldn't let Risinger see his face though.

He couldn't risk it.

It was probably only because of the time of the day that he was actually getting away with this. If it has been any earlier then there would have been more people around. There would have been more people looking out of their windows and more chance of him being spotted.

At this late hour however, Ryan didn't even know how many people would be awake.

He'd waited a day- an entire day with all of them lying low and hiding out in their apartment to avoid any new conflicts.

It had been a stressful day that had just appeared to drag on forever. No one had wanted to do anything but watch the news, listen to the news and check their Twitter feed. They'd barely talked, barely done anything but watched the minutes tick by.

Any attempts to find a solution were knocked down; they didn't know anything about the other men and despite Geoff doing some digging, he couldn't get more than just a name - Fake Haus. They couldn't find much about the case without going out of the house either. The police were useless and they were so convinced that it had been the Fake AH Crew that they weren't even exploring any other options.

So the day had been torture and now Ryan found himself here, with his hand hovering.

This time he knocked though and there was a brief break of silence before Jon's yell went up.

"I'm coming!"

Well, at least he didn't have to break in.

Then, seconds later the door was being yanked open and Ryan was faced with the familiar features of the brunet journalist.

Except this time Jon's features turned sour. His previous smile dropped and he was immediately pushing the door shut.

Maybe he would have to break in after all.

"Risinger-" Ryan protested, sticking his foot in the gap between the door and the frame. "Risinger stop."

"Jon!" He exclaimed loudly when the male just continued to try repeatedly to slam the door shut with his foot in the gap.

"Vagabond, just go." His words were cold and the glare in his eyes told Ryan exactly how the other man felt about him, and it took Ryan half a minute to reply, because of that. His mind was reeling at the dark tone - no one ever talked to him like that. "We need to talk."

"Talk? We have nothing to talk about."

"Jon," Ryan repeated, his voice softer. "Let me in, please."

Jon seemed to consider his words for a moment before he was backing away, his glare following Ryan's back as he stepped inside.

"You have no right to call me Jon." His words followed Ryan down the hallway as he walked and it had Ryan's stomach twisting again, but this time for a completely different reason. 

"What are you even doing here?" Ryan shrugged. Leaning back against Jon's kitchen counter, he locked his fingers together and turned back to face him, shaking his head slowly. He didn't know. 

Maybe it had been a bad idea to come here.

Maybe he should have tried to use another contact rather than coming straight to the journalist.

But, at this point, they had no one else. Everyone was convinced it was them. 

"Why didn't you reply to my message?" 

Again Ryan was shrugging, but this time he raised his eyes to Jon and locked them with the man's blue pair. 

"It wasn't us." 

There was a pause and Jon appeared to be studying him, his eyes still locked with Ryan's and he was looking into them now, beyond them, before he was sighing. 

"I know." 

"You know?" 

"They didn't look like you." At Ryan's stare he continued. "I've been watching you all for a while and, well, I've picked up on some things." 

Ryan should have expected that really. He was a journalist after all; it was his job to notice things that no one else noticed. 

"There was no sniper for a start, and you almost always have Ray in a nest," he continued and Ryan's brow raised at the mention of Ray's name but he didn't interrupt, wanting to hear the rest of the explanation. "And they had nicknames, weird nicknames. I know all of your nicknames, it's good for the headlines, and they didn't use them. At all.

"It was obvious to me that it wasn't you." 

"Then why did you send me that text?" Ryan asked and Jon's eyes were darting away from his for the first time in ages. Ryan's chased them, following them down to the floor where they hovered indefinitely. 

"I was- I thought that maybe I'd read you wrong. I thought that maybe I'd been wrong this entire time and - I was just shocked and there was your logo and I panicked." He trailed off towards the end, his head still dropped towards the floor and his hand rubbing through the messy locks. 

"We wouldn't do that, Jon, not for no reason." 

"I know." 

The words were like a breath, teased slowly from Jon's lips and so silent that Ryan almost didn't hear them. But he did and they cracked the smallest of smiles onto his lips. 

"If it wasn't you though, then who was it?" 

Jon's question shocked him and dragged the smile straight off of Ryan's lips. His eyes were staring at him now, fixed intently, and Ryan wondered if it was a good idea to tell him about the other gang.

But then he had come to him for help.

"They call themselves Fake Haus,"  Ryan started. "I don't have much information about them, just what Geoff was able to learn from some loyal friends. We don't have many of those left at the moment."

It felt wrong to admit that- to tell a journalist that they were losing their prestige over this. But at the same time, this was Jon. Jon who had come up with superhero logos for two of his best friends and Jon who had stayed up for hours that one time they were on a stake out, just waiting for the text telling him to come in. The same Jon that had defended them when Gavin had accidentally blown up that fire engine, even when everyone else had been complaining about wasted resources.

That was the same Jon he needed now.

"There's seven of them all together, even if there were only six out yesterday, but we don't have any names or photos. They've done a couple of jobs all over the country but nothing too serious and definitely nowhere near as big as this."

They had been their text subjects - their fail-safe. If something went wrong, then it was the Fake AH Crew that had done it, not them.

Now that it had gone so well though, Ryan worried that they would do it again.

They'd robbed a bank, killed all of the hostages and they'd gotten away scott-free.

No one was searching for them.

Why wouldn't they do it again?

"We've gone through all the usual channels but we can't find much on them," he continued. "Everyone's either too scared to respond or too confused."

He looked back up at Jon then and gave a casual shrug. He didn't want to outright say that they needed Jon's help, but they needed Jon's help.

"Let me see what I can find," Jon offered. In one smooth movement, the man pushed himself away from the counter and headed back through the kitchen door. Ryan trailed after him, only stopping when Jon came to a stop in front of a closed door.

"Can I just-" Jon started before he trailed off. "Just don't-"

Confusion riddled through Ryan as Jon shook his head, but then Jon was grabbing the handle and opening the door and finally Ryan understood.

He was there.

He was everywhere, in fact.

His mask an infection of black against the white walk and there were stains of red as well, both photos and sketches of the mask behind his mask.

Ryan was in awe.

Which was naturally when he turned and spotted the others as well. Gavin was up there, with his stupid sunglasses, and Geoff in his suit. There were photos of Jack as well, dressed in her Hawaiian shirt and of course there was Michael too. For Ray there was only one photo, the photo, and Ryan thought that said a lot.

"Sorry about..." Jon dropped silent again and Ryan just shook his head.

"It's impressive," he said lightly, stepping forwards and continuing to look around. The walls were covered and Jon must have been on them ages before Ryan had come across him because that was the Sunny bank heist - 'like sun rays, because it's Ray's heist. Get it?', Gavin had proposed cheerfully and they were all too nice to put him down - and that had been almost a year ago.

"How long have you been watching us."

"Just over a year," Jon explained. "It started when Miles, Burnie and I set the show up. It was good but it wasn't getting a big audience. We needed something more exciting, something different to reel an audience in. Then you guys started to get more notice and started doing bigger jobs. We thought we could broadcast news from our own city and then we just decided to focus on you.

"I had some old ties and a bit of experience with a camera and the rest just came naturally. Then you came along and it just got easier."

Ryan nodded slowly, crossing to run a hand over the graphic of the mask on the wall. It was good, really good, and Jon had loads of links going off it. Strings attached to notes with ideas of place of purchase, all horrendously wrong. But there were more notes as well, statistics about eye colours and hair colour ratios.

"What are these?" Ryan asked, indicating the numbers.

Jon visibly flushed.

"We thought it's be fun to do a feature on On the Spot where we tried to guess what you looked like, you know, without the masks," he stumbled through his explanation, hand dragging weakly through his strands of dark hair.

"And you think I'm brunet?" Ryan asked in surprise.

"No, Burnie does," Jon said. "He based it off this photo."

He indicated the one he meant and Ryan recognised it instantly. It was Gavin's Heist with the fire engines, when they - Gavin - had accidentally started a fire. Ryan's hair was filled with soot and he'd just ripped his mask off to breathe. Jon had captured him mid-gulp, head tilted back with the smoke billowing behind him.

He looked death-defying.

"I'm blond," he stated after a second and out of the corner of his eyes, he caught the way that Jon's head tilted up to look at him. He didn't make it obvious that he'd noticed though, he just kept looking.

"Eye colour?" Jon asked after a few beats and Ryan smiled turning.

"Blue." And he was half tempted to take his mask off, to let him see them. But he knew it was a bad idea, knew it was too risky.

"Blue," Jon echoed. His voice dropping for a second before he was perking up again. "What about the others?"

Ryan shook his head at that. He wasn't going to risk them too, not for this stupid thing he and Jon had going on.

The brunet actually looked sad for a moment before his lip was fixing in a firm purse. Concentration evidently building behind those vibrant eyes. Ryan couldn't help but wonder if he'd see more drawings on the wall the next time he came here, drawings of him.

The silence stretched for a minute, two, and then Jon was speaking up again.

"Do you know anything about their previous jobs?" He asked and Ryan shook his head. Geoff had all the information; maybe he should have brought Geoff here instead but he scrapped that idea instantly.

He didn't need the others to know that Jon knew more than they thought.

"So what do we know?" Jon asked and Ryan could only shrug. He seemed to be doing that a lot.

"We know that they bought the paint from somewhere, and it's good because they're having a lot of trouble washing it off." He glanced across at Ryan for a second before continuing. "We know that they got the explosives from somewhere. There's not many places to get those. And the vehicle they arrived in must have been parked somewhere nearby because they escaped out through the sewers.

"We could also try to find out where they got their masks, but that'll probably be a dead end."

Ryan could just stare as Jon continues to ramble, voicing his thoughts out loud as if hearing them helped him to decide if they were crazy or not.

He could see now why Jon was such a good journalist.

He could also believe whole-heartedly that it had been a good idea to bring Jon in. The man was impressive.

In two steps he was crossing the room, hand falling on Jon's shoulder as he leant over to see the whole page of notes now displayed on the computer screen.

"What can I do to help?"

**Author's Note:**

> Finally the story is starting properly! I jut want to thank you all for reading!! It's your encouragement that has made me want to continue this! Hopefully it doesn't disappoint~  
> As always, feel free to leave me prompts on my tumblr - justonebigclusterfuck


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